Public accountant who lost 52 kg due to lack of medical care in pre-trial detention gets 8 year in prison

Savaş Uyar, a 41-year-old public accountant in Turkey’s Giresun province who lost 52 kilograms during months-long pre-trial detention has been given 8 years of prison sentence.

“They did not believe me when I said my husband is extremely sick with tumors along his throat. He was given 8 years in jail. They have blatantly left him to die. May God hold you accountable for this,” a Twitter account believed to be of Uyar’s wife wrote on June 2.

Uyar was briefly jailed due to his accounting contract with some companies seized over their links to the Gulen movement, in June, 2016. Having spent some time behind bars in pre-trial detention on charges of abetting a terror group, he was released on judicial control. A month after his release, Uyar was arrested once more, to spend nearly 2 years in jail on similar charges this time around, Yeni Hamle online news portal reported in March, this year.

Several Twitter accounts said Uyar has been suffering from 4 different medical problems including goiter, vitamin deficiency and reflux, all of which have caused him to lose 52 kilograms over the past 22 months in pre-trial detention in Giresun prison.

Main opposition Republican Peoples’ Party (CHP) deputy Sezgin Tanrikulu has constantly urged the government to release Uyar for medical treatment, to no avail.

Uyar’s two children, aged 9 and 16, have been receiving psychological treatment over their father’s jailing, Tanrikulu also said.